Physician and nurse practitioner: conflict and reward.

Physicians and the nurse practitioners with whom they work face a number of conflicts. Conflicts develop within the individuals as they change their professional self-images. Each doctor-nurse team must develop new ways of working together and must do so against a background of long-standing professional territoriality. Comparable struggles are felt within schools and hospitals. Although governments have supported nurse practitioner programs, they have not yet enacted the fiscal and legal changes to make the role fully viable. Despite these struggles many physicians and nurses have achieved definite rewards. Research is beginning to document important successes, and educational programs are graduating significant numbers of practitioners.